Nigerians have been advised to embrace Information Communication Technology (ICT) for effective communication and transmission of ideas.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr Musa Istifanus, gave the advice during the 8th regular meeting of the National Council on Communications and Digital Economy (NCCDE) held in Owerri Friday.
He explained that the federal government through the Ministry has developed some policies and master plan among which is broadband plan 2020-2025.
According to Mr Istifanus, the broadband plan was targeted to cover 90% of Nigerians irrespective of their location.
Speaking on this year’s theme “Leveraging Digital Economy, Policies and Strategies for Economic Recovery in a Covid-19 Era and Beyond”, the Permanent Secretary recalled that people were cut off during the pandemic as there was break in communication and noted that with ICT, people can effectively communicate with each other and even do their buying and selling online.
He emphasized that “ICT helps to break the barrier of close contact and overcome the hurdle of Covid-19 Pandemic.
The organizer and Director, Research and Statistics of the ministry, Dr Nonye Nwachukwu further explained that the forum was to de-emphasize on paper qualifications and promote entrepreneurship and digital skill amongst Nigerians.
She maintained that enhancement of the ICT industry would provide jobs for the youth and reduce the dependence on white collar jobs.
The Director advised participants, especially State ICT Commissioners from various states of the federation to implement the outcome of the technical session in their states and ministries.
Commenting, the Imo state Commissioner for Communications and Digital Economy, Hon Ikechukwu Sunday Umeh, expressed happiness that the state was chosen as host of the NCCDE annual meeting.
He said that ICT had taken centre stage in this period of Covid-19 Pandemic and that without it, nothing would work well, which was why all talks in the meeting centred on how to improve Nigeria’s economy through digital economy.
Hon Umeh disclosed that the 27 Local Government Areas in the state had ICT centres where people were undergoing training and that this was aimed at ensuring that they became ICT compliant.
He commended the governor, Senator Hope Uzodinna, for being committed to the realization of the state’s digital economy and advised Imo people to pririotize their desires or interests in order to key into ICT for the digital economy to be realizable in no distant time.
